(Newser)
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US firms' employment expectations are the best they’ve been in more than a decade, a survey finds: Some 42% of companies who responded expect to boost hiring in the next 6 months, up from 39% in October; just 7% planned to shrink payrolls, compared to 11% in October. Some 62% of respondents, meanwhile, said they were likely to spend more on equipment this year, Bloomberg notes.

“Things are headed in the right direction,” said the economist who analyzed the results, but keep your hopes in check: A payroll surge “won’t happen overnight, and we’re probably several years from seeing the unemployment rate that we enjoyed prior to the downturn,” he said.

I was in Target today to return a gift. The woman in front of me was seeking a job and the woman behind the counter told her they were not hiring but she could fill out an application if she wished. Yep, the Obama economy is just booming.

Aitchondo

Jan 24, 2011 12:17 PM CST

Huh? What? Where? The unemployed Aitchondo needs a beer.

Karen Hussein Teegarden

Jan 24, 2011 10:46 AM CST

We were losing an average of 770,000 jobs per month when Obama took office. We've now had 12 straight months of job growth. We had a negative GDP when he took office and now have strong GDP growth. The stock market is up over 50% since he took office. While we are having positive job growth, it's still not enough to make up for the millions lost in the last decade hence the slow turnaround of the unemployment rate. It went down for the first time in December. Let's hope we can continue this positive momentum and GOP in the House doesn't mess things up.